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The Atari VCS Controversies Thread


Mockduck

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Real FAQ you need.

 

If you gave these clowns money and want it back, follow these steps.

 

1) Message the IGG page for a refund. Do this a few times and keeps records of how they never respond. The bank will ask for this information.

 

2) Print off any information you have. This way you can refer to it while you call the bank. It helps to be prepared and professional.

I did screen prints also of IGG page so I could reference it.

 

3) Be prepared to answer a lot of questions. It was at this point I felt really embarrassed to admit I bought into this.

Be honest and be firm you want your money back.

 

Make sure you are super polite also! It is up that person on the other end of the phone on if you get the money back. You want them on your side!

 

4) Key things to mention are the floating delivery date. The lack of communication. Also mention that they redesigned the item and it is not what you pre-ordered now.

I also mentioned how I turned them into IGG for Terms of Service breeches and that IGG didn't take my concerns seriously.

 

5) You may have to call the bank a few times and discuss this while they research it. Be patient. The bank wants a happy customer but they have rules to follow.

 

6) By this point you should get a refund from your bank or credit card company. Make sure you keep all that paperwork handy if they ask for it. Because most likely you will have a dispute period where you may have to fight some more. Chances are they will not dispute it.

 

ALSO DO NOT RESPOND BACK TO ANY EMAILS FROM IGG - DON'T JEOPARDIZE THE REFUND.

 

Hopefully this helps anyone who needs it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

A news article popped up in my feed a few minutes ago that I thought you guys and gals might find of interest: https://medium.com/@atarivcs/peripherals-update-designed-for-atari-vcs-in-partnership-with-powera-252685b0f2f1

 

It goes over how Atari is partnering with PowerA (who has been the company behind most of Nintendo's officially licensed carrying cases and third party controllers for the last decade and a half) to design and produce the VCS's controllers. I've got no expectations one way or the other on how the VCS system will turn out, but if PowerA is handling the controllers then it's pretty safe to say that at least the controllers will be quality products. :)

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Well, on the Switch side, I have a wired controller from them that I pretty much wore out after a month- but I think I exceeded what they would consider 'normal wear and tear'. ;) That, at least was pretty well-built for a $15 controller, I thought.

 

Of all this ridiculousness, I do hope the controllers materialize- I certainly won't hold my breath, though.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I firmly believe VCS will see a release. I just don't buy the vaporware hype at all. It doesnt seem, feel or vibe as true to me at all. I think theres definitely room in the market for this. Even AMD mentioned atari in one of their press releases, which boosts their credibility a lot to me. Atari, SA is a HOLDING COMPANY, meaning they must be partnering with AMD to make this console. All atari SA does is manage Intellectual property.

 

I think perhaps Atari VCS is not merely an atari console, but really an AMD console in disguise.. atari SA, a holding company licensing the atari hardware brand to AMD.

Edited by AlecRob
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If AMD were propping up Atari SA, I would expect more in the way of resources, communications, strategy, software, and other things one would associate with an entertainment platform. Maybe they'll pull a rabbit out of their hat at E3, but they've played the "just wait until____" card a few too many times for me to find them credible.

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I firmly believe VCS will see a release. I just don't buy the vaporware hype at all. It doesnt seem, feel or vibe as true to me at all. I think theres definitely room in the market for this. Even AMD mentioned atari in one of their press releases, which boosts their credibility a lot to me. Atari, SA is a HOLDING COMPANY, meaning they must be partnering with AMD to make this console. All atari SA does is manage Intellectual property.

I think perhaps Atari VCS is not merely an atari console, but really an AMD console in disguise.. atari SA, a holding company licensing the atari hardware brand to AMD.

Not a chance in my opinion AMD is involved in any way deeper than selling chips and providing standard support. For a console that if everything went right and a few miracles happened along the way would sell at best a few hundred thousand units over its lifetime simply wouldn't be worth their time for anything more. There's no big payoff potential here in an oversaturated market of big players.

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Not a chance in my opinion AMD is involved in any way deeper than selling chips and providing standard support. For a console that if everything went right and a few miracles happened along the way would sell at best a few hundred thousand units over its lifetime simply wouldn't be worth their time for anything more. There's no big payoff potential here in an oversaturated market of big players.

 

Well said. Atari SA is just one of the thousands of AMD customers of the AMD chip. AMD is not doing anything other than selling Atari SA a few reference boards and an option to purchase as many reference boards as Atari SA can afford. There are no custom chips and no big manufacturing contract and not even an Atari SA designed motherboard.

Edited by thetick1
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Lots of recent articles with quite a few details. Sounds like the NVidia Shield (AMD version) might actually be shown. Article claims Atari is "holding private preview meetings with press, retailers, and content partners."

 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/06/11/1867120/0/en/Atari-Brings-the-New-Atari-VCS-Video-Computer-System-to-Life-During-E3-2019-Launching-Official-Presale-in-Partnership-With-GameStop-and-Walmart.html

 

We'll see!!

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Lots of recent articles with quite a few details. Sounds like the NVidia Shield (AMD version) might actually be shown. Article claims Atari is "holding private preview meetings with press, retailers, and content partners."

 

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/06/11/1867120/0/en/Atari-Brings-the-New-Atari-VCS-Video-Computer-System-to-Life-During-E3-2019-Launching-Official-Presale-in-Partnership-With-GameStop-and-Walmart.html

 

We'll see!!

That's a press release, written by "Atari" themselves.
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Received a VCS update e-mail today with links to Gamestop and Walmart pre-orders. I didn't know they are calling it the VCS 800 now. They want $389.99 for the "all in bundle"

Well, the pile of fake shit that doesn't exist will have 8GB, while the other fake piece of shit that doesn't exist known as the 400, will have 4GB.

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Well, the pile of fake shit that doesn't exist will have 8GB, while the other fake piece of shit that doesn't exist known as the 400, will have 4GB.

 

They might have a reference board .. anyone with a few hundred dollars can buy a reference board and be an AMD customer. What I suspect will be missing is any functional game. They will likely "show off" the AMD SDK where the they changed the login title from AMD SDK to Atari SDK.

Edited by thetick1
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  • 2 weeks later...

So on the sandbox side of things, do you guys have any ideas for what you may use VCS for?  I’m thinking an arcade stick and retroarch/mame would be amusing,  maybe try emulating playstation 1 and pc engine CD... i may also try windows and city of heroes homecoming.. how about phantasy star online 2?  

 

Another neat idea would be to emulate an atari ST desktop.. 

 

I’m just gonna use it as a pretty looking 200 dollar desktop pc with an atari logo on it.  I dont particularly need powerful applications like AAA games...  VCS already has way better specs than the last PC i purchased (a  SIX HUNDRED DOLLAR toshiba satellite). I no longer own it because somebody stole it when i was working at a marijuana farm in cali a few years ago ?

Edited by AlecRob
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  • 4 weeks later...

It is good to see that all the rest of the Atari fans are approaching this travesty with such scepticism. I just feel sorry for the PC gamers who bought Asteroids outpost online only to see a few weeks after it was launched that it was broken beyond repair then turned into abandonware.  A bit like this project is proving to be.  I hope for the sake of the people who put money down that something comes out for them. 

Meanwhile I look forward to Xbox 2 and PS5 with interest. 

Edited by bloodreptile
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On 6/21/2019 at 1:08 AM, AlecRob said:

VCS already has way better specs than the last PC i purchased (a  SIX HUNDRED DOLLAR toshiba satellite).?

Who cares about specs on non-existent hardware?

 

Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and PC are real and here today. Look to those platforms for gaming. And then there's emulation or used hardware on ebay if you want retrogaming.

 

What I'm saying is don't bother waiting for this ataribox thing. Get something you can enjoy today!

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12 hours ago, Keatah said:

Who cares about specs on non-existent hardware?

 

Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and PC are real and here today. Look to those platforms for gaming. And then there's emulation or used hardware on ebay if you want retrogaming.

 

What I'm saying is don't bother waiting for this ataribox thing. Get something you can enjoy today!

That $600 toshiba laptop likely has far greater support and versatility, even if overall cpu power is weaker.

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19 hours ago, bloodreptile said:

It is good to see that all the rest of the Atari fans are approaching this travesty with such scepticism. I just feel sorry for the PC gamers who bought Asteroids outpost online only to see a few weeks after it was launched that it was broken beyond repair then turned into abandonware.  A bit like this project is proving to be.  I hope for the sake of the people who put money down that something comes out for them. 

Meanwhile I look forward to Xbox 2 and PS5 with interest. 

This is a really good point. If you want to know how Atari SA can handle projects, just look at the mess they've made of anything that tries to be major in recent years.

 

Asteroids Outpost: Laughable to have called that a beta for a final release. Abandoned

Haunted House: Cryptic Graves: Same situation as Asteroids. Unfinished abandonware

Minimum: Playable and innovative because it was handled by Human Head, but Atari didn't have the money to finish paying the devs, so it ended up as abandonware. This was made worse by it being an online only game, so fans had to scramble together to run servers (for a while, you simply couldn't play the game though). Eventually handed off to someone else, but a lot of the planned content for it never materialized.

RollerCoaster Tycoon World: This is supposed to be their main IP at this point, but they can't get that right. Same issue that goes on behind the scenes that you don't hear about unless you know a dev - they don't have the money or interest to present a working product. Years after release, RTW still is a buggy mess.

Night Driver: It garnered some fanfare on the release, but was quickly forgotten. Currently sitting at 2.6 stars on the Google Play store, most reviews complain about the craptastic controls. I'm using a Windows PC, and looking on the Apple app store, there's no mention of the game, just a few things like Breakout and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Main website still says "Coming Soon," no links to the actual game on either App Store, so that tells you how much they care about anything that doesn't instantly become a hit.

 

Yes, they do have some bright spots, although getting the Atari Vault and Tempest 4000 wrong would be quite a feat, since they didn't really have to do anything there. Flashback 9 is probably the best thing they can refer to at this point, but again, that was AtGames. All Atari had to do was give the thumbs up and cash the licensing fee checks. 

 

So what does all of the evidence point to - that even if the VCS does get out the door, the track record of the parent company in supporting it in the aftermarket is not something to hold any faith in. I also think that's why they are acting like the sandbox mode is going to be a huge deal, as they can easily tell people that it's their fault if they can't get Linux to run right, or will just throw out a "we can't guarantee compatibility" on anything that doesn't want to work out of the box.  

 

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Yup, it's becoming increasingly apparent that they are hoping to deliver a Linux PC in a plastic project box with a rebranded free distro and Atari Vault for Linux installed if that. Then they'll say "Sandbox!" and "Create!" to every question or criticism before they abandon it too. The real question is, are they even capable of doing that much? Not that it should satisfy any of the poor saps that paid up front for it. If the dweeb they lean on so heavy for hardware development hasn't been able to build out his "company's" website in like, ever, it's not looking good at all.  

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25 minutes ago, JBerel said:

Yup, it's becoming increasingly apparent that they are hoping to deliver a Linux PC in a plastic project box with a rebranded free distro and Atari Vault for Linux installed if that. Then they'll say "Sandbox!" and "Create!" to every question or criticism before they abandon it too. The real question is, are they even capable of doing that much? Not that it should satisfy any of the poor saps that paid up front for it. If the dweeb they lean on so heavy for hardware development hasn't been able to build out his "company's" website in like, ever, it's not looking good at all.  

It'll end up like the small portion of fandom that defends the Last Jedi from it's many, obvious plot holes and flaws. 

 

Star Wars land:

"Hey, Vice Admiral Purple Hair's "plan" makes no sense, and..."

"IT'S THE FORCE, SHUT UP"

 

Atari VCS land:

"Hey, this doesn't work and how come the VCS Store is so barren with interesting content?"

"SANDBOX, SHUT UP & BANNED"

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